Chapter II (2)

The philological attainments of this age, with respect to Greek, Latin, and English, will be placed in a still more compendiously clear light, by a mere enumeration of those who greatly excelled in rendering their acquisition more systematic and correct. Both Greek and English literature were early indebted to the labours of Sir _Thomas Smith_, who was appointed public lecturer at Cambridge on the first of these languages, the study of which he much facilitated by a new method of accentuation and pronunciation; publishing at the same time an improved system of orthography for his native tongue. These useful works were printed together in 4to. in 1568, under the titles of _De recta et emendata linguæ Græcæ pronunciatione_, and _De recta et emendata linguæ Anglicæ scriptione_.

Another equally eminent Grecian philologer appeared at the same time, in the person of Sir _Henry Savile_, who was Greek preceptor to Elizabeth, warden of Merton-College, and provost of Eton. He was editor of the works of Chrysostom, with notes, in 8 vols. folio, 1613, the most elaborate Greek production which had hitherto issued from an English press: of Xenophon's Cyropædia, and of the _Steliteutici_ of Nazianzen. He translated also into English, as early as 1581, the first four books of the History of Tacitus, and his Life of Agricola, accompanied by very valuable annotations, which were afterwards published in a Latin version, by Gruter, at Amsterdam.

To his able assistant, also, in editing the works of Chrysostom, the _Rev. John Boys_, much gratitude is due for his enthusiasm in the cause of Grecian lore. So attached was he to this study, that during his fellowship of St. John's College, Cambridge, he voluntarily gave a Greek lecture every morning in his own room at four o'clock; and, what affords a still more striking picture of the learned enthusiasm of the times, it is recorded that this very early prelection was regularly attended by nearly all the fellows of his college!

Latin Literature appears to have been cultivated with greater purity and success in the prior than in the latter portion of Elizabeth's reign. It is scarcely necessary to mention the great names of _George Buchanan_ and _Walter Haddon_, who divided the attention of the classical world, and drew from Elizabeth the following terse expression on their comparative merits:—_Buchananum omnibus antepono; Haddonum nemini postpono._[454:A]

Nor can we fail to recollect the truly admirable production of _Ascham_, the "Schole Master; or plaine and perfite Way of teaching Children, to understand, write, and speake, the _Latin_ Tonge:" than which a more interesting and judicious treatise has not appeared upon the subject in any language.

Among the most eminent Latin philologers who witnessed the close of the sixteenth century, may be mentioned the name of _Edward Grant_, Master of Westminster-School, who was celebrated for his Latin poetry, and who published, in 1577, _Oratio de vita et obitu Rogeri Aschami, ac dictionis elegantia, cum adhortatione ad adolescentulos_. He died in 1601.

With Grant should be classed the master of the free-school of Taunton in Somersetshire, _John Bond_, who subsequently practised as a physician, and died in 1612. He published, in 1606, some valuable commentaries, in the Latin language, on the poems of Horace, and, in 1614, on the Six Satires of Persius.

Roman literature, however, in this country was under yet higher obligations to _John Rider_, than to either of the preceding philologers; this learned prelate being the compiler of the first dictionary in our language, in which the English is placed before the Latin. It is entitled _A Dictionary Engl. and Latin, and Latin and English_. Oxon. 1589. 4to. Rider was promoted to the See of Killaloe in 1612, and died in 1632.

In our observations on the state of the _English_ language we have noticed the labours of _Ascham_ and _Wilson_ as pre-eminently conducive to its improvement; the first of these writers having published two excellent models for English composition, and the second having presented us with a valuable treatise on rhetoric. To these should be added the efforts of _Richard Mulcaster_, first master of the Merchant-Taylors School, who, in 1581, published his "Positions, wherein those primitive circumstances be examined which are necessarie for the training up of Children, either for skill in theire Booke or Health in their Bodie;" a work which was followed, in the subsequent year, by "The first Part of the _Elementarie_, which entreateth chefely of the right Writing of the English Tung."

The _Positions_ and the _Elementarie_ of Mulcaster, though inferior in literary merit to the Scholemaster of Ascham, contributed materially to the progress of English philology, as they contain many valuable and acute observations on our language.

It appears, from the assertion of _William Bullokar_, an able co-operator in the work of education, that he was the author of the _first_ English Grammar. In 1586 he printed his "Bref grammar for English," which is likewise entitled in fol. 1. "W. Bullokar's abbreviation of his Grammar for English extracted out of his Grammar at larg for the spedi parcing of English spech, and the eazier coming to the knowledge of grammar for other langages;" and Warton adds, in his account of Bullokar's writings, that among Tanner's books was found "a copy of his _bref grammar_ above mentioned, interpolated and corrected with the author's own hand, as it appears, for a new impression. In one of these manuscript insertions, he calls this, 'the first grammar for Englishe that ever waz, except my _grammar at large_.'"[456:A]

It is not exactly ascertained in what year the Grammar of _Ben Jonson_ was written, as it did not appear until after his death; but it may be safely affirmed that to this production of the once celebrated rival and contemporary of Shakspeare, the English language has been more indebted than to the labours certainly of any previous, and we may almost add, of any subsequent, grammarian, Lowth's and Murray's even not excepted.

The next branch of our present subject embraces the department of CRITICISM, which was cultivated in this period to a great extent, and we are sorry to add not seldom with uncommon bitterness and malignity. Numerous are the writers who complain of the very severe and sarcastic tone in which the critics of the age indulged; but one instance or two will be sufficient to prove both the frequency and asperity of the art. Robert Armin, in his Address _Ad Lectorem hic et ubique_, prefixed to _The Italian Taylor and his Boy_, says, speaking of his pen, "I wander with it now in a strange time of taxation, wherein every pen and inck-horne Boy will throw up his cap at the hornes of the Moone in censure, although his wit hang there, not returning unlesse monthly in the wane: such is our ticklish age, and the itching braine of abon̄dance[456:B];" and in the _Troia Britannica_ of Thomas Heywood, the author, saluting his various readers under the titles of the Courteous, the Criticke, and the Scornefull, tells the latter, "I am not so unexperienced in the envy of this Age, but that I knowe I shall encounter most sharpe, and severe Censurers, such as continually carpe at other mens labours, and superficially perusing them, with a kind of negligence and skorne, quote them by the way, Thus: This is an error, that was too much streacht, this too slightly neglected, heere many things might have been added, there it might have been better followed: this superfluous, that ridiculous. These indeed knowing no other meanes to have themselves opinioned in the ranke of understanders, but by calumniating other mens industries."[457:A]

If such proved the strain of general, we need not be surprised if controversial, criticism assumed a still more tremendous aspect. Between the Puritans, in the reign of Elizabeth, who carried on their warfare under the fictitious appellative of _Martin Mar-prelate_, and the members of the episcopal church, a torrent of libels broke forth, which inundated the country with a deluge of distorted ridicule and rancorous abuse. Nor were the quarrels of literary men conducted with less ferocity, though perhaps with more wit. The republic of letters was, indeed, infested for near twenty years, from the year 1580 to 1600, with a set of Town-wits, who, void of all moral principle or decent restraint, employed their pens in lashing to death, with indiscriminate rage, the objects of their envy or their spleen. Of this description were those noted characters, Christopher Marlow, Robert Greene, Thomas Decker, and Thomas Nash; men possessed of genius, learning, and unquestioned ability, as poets, satirists, and critics; but excessively debauched in their manners, intemperate in their passions, and heedless of what they inflicted. The treatment which Gabriel Harvey, the bosom-friend of Spenser and Sidney, received from the scurrilous criticism of Greene and Nash, was, though not altogether unprovoked, beyond all measure gross, cruel, and vindictive. The literature and the moral character of Harvey were highly respectable; but he was vain, credulous, affected, and pedantic; he published a collection of panegyrics on himself; he turned astrologer and almanack-maker, he was perfectly _Italianated_ in his dress and manner, in his style he was pompously elaborate, and he boasted himself the inventor and introducer of English Hexameters.[458:A] These foibles, together with the obscurity of his parentage, his father being a rope-maker at Saffron-Walden, in Essex, a circumstance of which he had the folly to be ashamed, furnished to his adversaries an inexhaustible fund of ridicule and wit; and had these legitimate ingredients been unmingled with personal invective and brutal sarcasm, Gabriel, who was no mean railer himself, had not been sinned against; but the malignity of Greene and Nash was unbounded; and Harvey, who was morbidly irritable and bled at every pore, catching a portion of their spirit, the controversy became so outrageously virulent, that the prelates of Canterbury and London, Whitgift and Bancroft, interfering, issued an order, "that all Nashe's books and Dr. Harveys bookes be taken wheresoever they may be found, and that none of the said bookes be ever printed hereafter;" an injunction which has rendered most of the pamphlets on this literary quarrel extremely scarce, particularly Harvey's "Four Letters And Certaine Sonnets. Especially touching Robert Greene and other Poets by him abused. Imprinted by John Wolfe 1592;" a very curious work, which we shall have occasion to quote hereafter; and Nash's "Have with you to Saffron-Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's hunt is up," 1596, which includes a humorous but unmerciful representation of Gabriel's life and character, the bitter satirist exulting in the idea that he had brought on his adversary, by the poignancy of his invectives, the effects of premature old age. "I have brought him low," he exclaims, "and shrewly broken him; look on his head, and you shall find a gray haire for everie line I have writ against him; and you shall have all his beard white too by the time he hath read over this booke."[459:A]

How great a nuisance this bevy of lampooning critics was considered, and to what a height their shameless effrontery was carried, may be learnt from a passage in a pamphlet by Dr. Lodge, a contemporary physician of great learning and good sense, who, though he terms Nash, and perhaps very justly, "the true English Aretine," has drawn a picture which applies to him as accurately as to any individual of the class; "a fellow," to adopt the words of an old play with respect to this very man, "that carried the deadly stocke in his pen, whose muze was armed with a jag tooth, and his pen possest with Hercules furyes."[459:B] "You shall know him" (the envious critic), says Lodge, "by this; he is a foule lubber, his tongue tipt with lying, his heart steeled against charity; he walks, for the most part, in black, under colour of gravity, and _looks as pale as y{e} wizard of the ghost which cried so miserably at y{e} theater, like an oister wife, Hamlet revenge_: he is full of infamy and slander, insomuch as if he ease not his stomach in detracting somewhat or some man before noontide, he fals into a fever that holds him while supper time; he is alwaies devising of epigrams or scoffes and grumbles, necromances continually, although nothing crosse him, he never laughs but at other men's harms, briefly in being a tyrant over men's fames; he is a very Titius (as Virgil saith) to his owne thoughtes.

"Titiique vultus inter
Qui semper lacerat comestque mentem.

"The mischiefe is, that by grave demeanour and newes bearing, he hath got some credite with the greater sort, and manie fowles there bee, that because he can pen prettilee, hold it gospell whatever he writes or speakes, his custome is to preferre a foole to credite, to despight a wise man, and no poet lives by him that hath not a flout of him. Let him spie a man of wit in a taverne, he is a hare brained quareller. Let a scholler write, Tush (saith he) I like not these common fellowes; let him write well, he hath stolen it out of some note booke; let him translate, tut it is not of his owne; let him be named for preferment, he is insufficient because poore; no man shall rise in his world, except to feed his envy; no man can continue in his friendship who hateth all men." He then adds the following judicious advice, predicting what would be the consequence of neglecting to pursue it:—"Divine wits for many things as sufficient as all antiquity (I speake it not on slight surmise, but considerate judgment) to you belongs the death that doth nourish this poison; to you the paine that endure the reproofe. LILLY, the famous for facility in discourse; SPENCER, best read in ancient poetry; DANIEL, choice in word and invention; DRAITON, diligent and formall; TH. NASH, true English Aretine. All you unnamed professors, or friends of poetry (but by me inwardly honoured) knit your industries in private to unite your fames in publicke; let the strong stay up the weake, and the weake march under conduct of the strong; and all so imbattle yourselfes, that hate of vertue may not imbase you. But if besotted with foolish vain glory, emulation and contempt, you fall to neglect one another, _Quod Deus omen avertat_, doubtless it will be as infamous a thing shortly to present any book whatsoever learned to any Mæcenas in England, as it is to be headsman in any free city in Germanie."[460:A]

Turning, however, from this abuse of critical and satiric talent, let us direct our attention exclusively to those productions of the art which are distinguished as well by moderation and urbanity, as by learning and acumen.

It is worthy of remark that in _English_ literature, during this era, nearly all the professed critical treatises, if we except those of Wilson and Ascham, were employed on the subject of poetry. We shall confine ourselves, therefore, to a chronological enumeration, accompanied by a few observations, of these interesting pieces. The first, in the order of time, is a production of _George Gascoigne_ the poet, and was published at the close of the second edition of "The Posies of George Gascoigne Esquire, Corrected, perfected, and augmented by the Authour, 1575. _Tam Marti, quam Mercurio._ Imprinted at London by H. Bynneman for Richard Smith." It is entitled, "Certayne notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English, written at the request of Master Edovardo Donati;" and was again printed in "The whole workes of George Gascoign Esquyre: newlye compyled into one volume," small 4to. b. l. 1587. This little tract is more didactic than critical; but contains several judicious directions, and some sensible remarks.

Ten years after, appeared a treatise on "Scottis Poesie," from the pen of King James the First, when only eighteen years of age. This learned monarch commenced his career of authorship with "The Essayes of a Premise, in the Divine art of Poesie. Imprinted at Edinburgh, by Thomas Vautroullier, 1585, 4to. Cum privilegio Regali." The fifth article in this miscellany includes the criticism in question, under the title of "Ane schort Treatise, containing some reulis and cautelis to be observit and eschewit in Scottis poesie." This is a production highly curious, as well for its manner as matter; for, not content with mere precept, the royal critic has given us copious specimens of the several kinds of verse then in use. The eighth chapter of this short treatise is devoted to this purpose, detailing rules and examples, 1st, For _lang histories_. 2dly, For _heroic acts_. 3dly, For _heich and grave subjects_. 4thly, For _tragic matters_. 5thly, For _flyting or invectives_. 6thly, For _Sonnet verse_. 7thly, For _Matters of love_; and 8thly, For _Tenfoot verse_.

Under the fifth head is given as an _exemplar_ of the _Rouncefalles_, or _Tumbling_ verse, the lines formerly quoted from the _Flyting_ of _Montgomery_ as illustrative of a superstition peculiar to Allhallow-Eve; and under the seventh, on "love materis," is introduced as an example of "cuttit and broken verse, quhairof new formes are daylie inventit according to the Poetis pleasour," the following stanza, which has been rendered familiar to an English ear by the genius of Burns:—

"Quha wald have tyrde to heir that tone,
Quhilk birds corroborat ay abone,
Through schouting of the larkis!
They sprang sa heich into the skyes,
Quhill Cupide walknis with the cryis
Of Nature's chapell clerkis.
Then leaving all the heavins above,
He lichted on the card;
Lo! how that lytill god of love
Before me then appeard.
So mylde-like
And child-like,
With bow thre quarters skant,
So moilie
And coylie
He lukit lyke a Sant."

It is observable that James, in assigning his "twa caussis" for composing this work, tells us that "albeit _sindrie hes written of it_ (poesie) _in English_, quhilk is lykest to our language, zit we differ from thame in sindrie reulis of poesie, as ze will find be experience;" but who these _sundry writers_ were, has not, with the exception of Gascoigne's "Notes of Instruction," been hitherto discovered.[462:A]

It is barely possible that the royal critic may have included in his "sindrie," the next work which we have to record on the subject, the production of our immortal Spenser, and entitled "The English Poet," a work which we lament should have been suffered to perish in manuscript. Its existence was first intimated to the public in 1579, by E. K., in his argument to the tenth Aeglogue of the _Shepheard's Calender_, with a promise, which unfortunately proved faithless, of committing it to the press. Poetry, observes this commentator, is "no art, but a divine gift and heavenly instinct not to be gotten by labour and learning, but adorned with both; and poured into the witte by a certaine Enthusiasmos and celestial inspiration, as the Author hereof elsewhere at large discourseth in his booke called _The English Poet_, which booke being lately come to my handes, I minde also by God's grace, upon further advisement, to publish."[463:A] That the taste and erudition of Spenser had rendered this critical essay highly interesting, there is every reason to conclude, and though the only positive testimony to its composition rests on the single authority which we have quoted, it is extremely probable, from the manner in which its acquisition by the commentator is mentioned, that the MS. had circulated, and continued to circulate, among the friends and admirers of the poet, for some years.

Scarcely had the British Solomon published his juvenile criticisms, when a kindred work issued from the London press, under the title of "A Discourse of English Poetrie, together with the Author's Judgment touching the reformation of our English verse. By William Webbe, Graduate. Imprinted at London by John Charlewood. 4to, 1586." Black letter.

The chief purport of this pamphlet, now so rare that only three copies are known to exist[463:B], is to propose, what the author terms, a "perfect platform, or prosodia of versifying, in imitation of the Greeks and Latins," a scheme which, though supported by Sidney, Dyer, Spenser, and Harvey, happily miscarried. "The hexameter verse," says Nash, with great good sense, in his controversy with Harvey, "I graunt to be a gentleman of an auncient house, (so is many an English beggar,) yet this clyme of ours hee cannot thrive in; our speech is too craggy for him to set his plough in; hee goes twitching and hopping in our language, like a man running upon quagmires, up the hill in one syllable and downe the dale in another, retaining no part of that stately smooth gate which he vaunts himself with amongst the Greeks and Latins."[464:A]

Webbe's "Discourse," however, is valuable on account of the characters which he has drawn of the English poets, from Chaucer to his own time. He notices, also, "Gaskoynes Instructions for versifying;" and, after declaring the Shepherd's Calender inferior neither to Theocritus nor Virgil, he expresses an ardent wish that the other works of Spenser might get abroad, and especially his "English Poet, which his friend E. K. did once promise to publish." The tract concludes with the author's assertion, that his "onely ende" in compiling it was "not as an exquisite censure concerning the matter," but "that it might be an occasion to have the same thoroughly, and with greater discretion taken in hande, and laboured by some other of greater abilitie, of whom I know there be manie among the famous poets in London, who both for learning and leysure may handle the argument far more pythelie."[464:B]

In 1588, _Abraham Fraunce_, another encourager and writer of English Hexameter and Pentameter verses, published in octavo, a critical treatise, a mixture of prose and verse, under the quaint title of "The Arcadian Rhetoricke, or the Precepts of Rhetoricke made plain by example, Greeke, Latyne, Englishe, Italyan, and Spanishe." This rare volume is in the library of Mr. Malone, and is valuable, observes Warton, for its English examples.[464:C]

In the same year which produced Fraunce's work, appeared the _Touch-Stone of Wittes_, written by _Edward Hake_, and printed at London by Edmund Botifaunt. This little tract is employed in sketching the features of the chief poets of the day; but differs not materially from _Webbe's Discourse of English Poetrie_, from which, indeed, it is principally compiled. Hake describes himself (in another of his productions called "_A Touchstone_ for this time present,") as an "attorney of the Common Pleas;" mentions his having been educated under John Hopkins, whom he terms a learned and exquisite teacher, and when criticising the _Mirrour of Magistrates_ in his _Touchstone of Wittes_, speaks of its augmentor, John Higgins, as his particular friend.[465:A]

But by far the most valuable work which was published in the province of criticism, during the life-time of Shakspeare, was written by _George Puttenham_, and entitled "The Arte of English Poesie, Contrived into three Bookes: The first of Poets and Poesie, the second of Proportion, the third of Ornament. At London Printed by Richard Field, dwelling in the black-Friers neere Ludgate. 1589."

This book, which seems to have been composed considerably anterior to its publication, was printed anonymously, and has been ascribed to Spenser and Sidney.[465:B] Bolton, whose _Hypocritica_ was written in the reign of James I., though not printed until 1722, mentions Puttenham, however, as the reputed author; and a reference to Bolton's manuscript, preserved in the archives at Oxford, enabled Anthony Wood to announce this fact to the public. "There is," says he, "a book in being called _The Art of English Poesie_, not written by Sydney, as some have thought, but rather by one _Puttenham_, sometime a Gentleman Pensioner to Qu. Elizab."[465:C]

An elegant reprint of this old critic has been lately (1811) edited by Mr. Haslewood, in which, with indefatigable industry and research, he has collected all that could throw light on the personal and literary history of his author. His opinion of the critical acumen of Puttenham, though favourable, is not too highly coloured. "Puttenham," he remarks, "was a candid but sententious critic. What his observations want in argument, is made up for by the soundness of his judgment; and his conclusions, notwithstanding their brevity, are just and pertinent. He did not hastily scan his author, to indulge in an untimely sneer, and his opinions were adopted by contemporary writers, and have not been dissented from by the moderns."[466:A]

Of the same tenour are the sentiments of Mr. Gilchrist, who opens his analysis of the _Arte of English Poesie_, with asserting that it "is on many accounts one of the most curious and entertaining, and, intrinsically, one of the most valuable books of the age of Elizabeth;" infinitely superior, he adds, as an elementary treatise on the arts, to the volumes of Wilson and Webbe, "as being formed on a more comprehensive scale, and illustrated by examples; while the copious intermixture of contemporary anecdote, tradition, manners, opinions, and the numerous specimens of coeval poetry, no where else preserved, contribute to form a volume of infinite amusement, curiosity, and value."[466:B]

To various parts of this interesting treatise, we shall have occasion frequently to refer, when discussing the subjects of miscellaneous poetry and metropolitan manners. It is indeed a store-house of poetical erudition.

The next work which, in the order of publication, falls under our notice, is SIR JOHN HARRINGTON'S _Apologie of Poetry_, prefixed in 1591 to his Version of the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto. It is a production of some merit, displaying both judgment and ingenuity; but is most remarkable for the earliest notice of Puttenham's Arte of Poesie, and for affording a striking proof of the obscurity in which that critic had enveloped himself with regard to its parentage; for though two years had elapsed since its publication, it appears that neither the Queen, her courtiers, nor the literary world, had the slightest idea of its origin, and Sir John speaks of the author under the appellation of "_Ignoto_." "Neither," says he, "do I suppose it to be greatly behoovefull for this purpose, to trouble you with the curious definitions of a poet and poesie, and with the subtill distinctions of their sundrie kinds; nor to dispute how high and supernatural the name of a Maker is, so christened in English by that _unknowne Godfather_, that this last yeare save one, viz. 1589, set forth a booke called the Art of English Poetrie: and least of all do I purpose to bestow any long time to argue, whether Plato, Zenophon, and Erasmus, writing fictions and dialogues in prose, may justly be called poets, or whether Lucan writing a story in verse be an historiographer, or whether Master Faire translating Virgil, Master Golding translating Ovid's Metamorphosis, and my selfe in this worke that you see, be any more than versifiers, as the same _Ignoto_ termeth all translators."[467:A]

Poetry, soon after the birth of this Apology, had to boast of a champion of still greater prowess, in the person of SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, whose _Defence of Poesie_ was first made public in 1595. It had, however, been previously circulated in manuscript for some years; thus Sir John Harrington refers to it in his Apology 1591, and there is reason to believe, that it was written so early as 1581 or 1582. This delightful piece of criticism exhibits the taste and erudition of Sir Philip in a striking light; the style is remarkable for amenity and simplicity; the laws of the Drama and Epopœa are laid down with singular judgment and precision, and the cause of poetry is strenuously and successfully supported against the calumny and abuse of the puritanical scowlers, one of whom had the effrontery to dedicate to him his collection of scurrility, in the very title-page of which he classes poets with pipers and jesters, and terms them the "caterpillars of the commonwealth."[468:A]

A very ingenious "_Comparative Discourse of our English Poets, with the Greeke, Latine, and Italian Poets_," was published by FRANCIS MERES, in 1598, under the title of _Palladis Tamia, Wit's Treasury_.[468:B] Meres is certainly much indebted to the thirty-first chapter of the first book of Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie; but he has considerably extended the catalogue of poets, and it should be added, that his comparisons are drawn with no small portion of skill and felicity, and that his criticisms are, for the most part, just and tersely expressed.

Another attempt was made, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, to introduce the Roman measures into English verse, in a duodecimo entitled, "Observations in the Art of English Poesie, by THOMAS CAMPION, wherein it is demonstratively proved, and by example confirmed, that the English toong will receive eight severall kinds of numbers, proper to itselfe, which are all in this book set forth, and were never before this time by any man attempted." London; printed by Richard Field, for Andrew Wise. 1602.

The object of this tract, which is dedicated to Lord Buckhurst, whom he terms, "the noblest judge of poesie," was not only to recommend the adoption of classical metres, but to abolish, if possible, the use of rhime. "For this end," says he in his preface, "have I studyed to induce a true forme of versefying into our language, for the vulgar and unartificial custome of riming hath, I know, detered many excellent wits from the exercise of English Poesy."

In consequence of this determination, he has enforced his "Observations" by examples on the classic model, without rhime; and among them, at p. 12. is a specimen of what he calls _Lincentiate Iambicks_, which is, in fact, our present blank verse.

This systematic attack upon rhime speedily called forth a consummate master of the art in its defence; for in 1603 appeared, "A Defence of Ryme, against a pamphlet intituled, Observations in the Art of Poesie, wherein is demonstratively proved that ryme is the fittest harmonie of wordes that comports with our language." By Samuel Daniel.

It need scarcely be said that the elegant and correct poet has obtained a complete victory over his opponent, whom he censures, not so much for attempting the introduction of new measures, as for his abuse of rhime; he might have shown his skill, he justly and eloquently observes, "without doing wrong to the honour of the dead, wrong to the fame of the living, and wrong to England, in seeking to lay reproach upon her native ornaments, and to turn the fair stream and full course of her accents, into the shallow current of a loose uncertainty, clean out of the way of her known delight.—Therefore here stand I forth," he adds in a subsequent paragraph, "only to make good the place we have thus taken up, and to defend the sacred monuments erected therein, which contain the honour of the dead, the fame of the living, the glory of peace, and the best power of our speech, and wherein so many honourable spirits have sacrificed to memory their dearest passions, showing by what divine influence they have been moved, and under what stars they lived."[469:A]

Great modesty and good sense distinguish this pamphlet, in which the author candidly allows that rhime has been sometimes too lavishly used and where blank verse might have been substituted with better effect, and he concludes his "Defence" with some excellent remarks on affectation in the choice and collocation of words, a vice from which he was more free than any of his contemporaries, simplicity and purity, in fact, being the leading features of his style.

The last critic of the era to which we are limited, is EDWARD BOLTON, whose "_Hypercritica_; Or a Rule of Judgment for writing or reading our Historys," a small collection of tracts or essays, "occasioned," says Warton, "by a passage in Sir Henry Seville's Epistle prefixed to his edition of our old Latin historians, 1596,"[470:A] was supposed by Wood, in a note on the MS. preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, to have been written about 1610. But that this date is too early is evident from the work itself; for in the fourth essay, which is entitled "Prime Gardens for gathering English: according to the true gage or standard of the tongue about fifteen or sixteen years ago," King James's poetry is spoken of in the following manner:—"I dare not presume to speak of his Majesty's exercises in this heroick kind, because I see them all left out in that which Montague lord bishop of Winchester hath given us of his royal writings."[470:B] Now Bishop Montague's edition of James's Works was not published until 1616.

The principal writers in prose and poetry, anterior to 1600, are noticed in this fourth division of the _Hypercritica_, and the judgment passed upon them is, in general, correct and satisfactory, and does credit to the "sensible old English critic," as Warton emphatically terms him.[470:C]

It is remarkable that the _Hypercritica_ should have been suffered to continue in its manuscript state until 1722, at which period it was printed by Anthony Hall at the end of Trivet's "Annalium Continuatio." Oxford, 8vo.

Bolton, whom Ritson calls "a profound scholar and eminent critic[470:D]," was certainly a man of considerable learning, and occupied no small space in the public eye as an historian, philologer, and antiquary.

To this enumeration it may be necessary to add some notice of that industrious race of critics, termed _Commentators_; a species which, for the last half century, has been employed as laboriously on old English, as formerly were the German Literati on ancient classical, literature. Of this mode of illustration, which has lately thrown so much light on the manners and learning of our poet's age, two early and very ingenious specimens may be mentioned under the reign of Elizabeth and James. The first is the Commentary of E. K. on the Shepheards Calender of Spenser, in 1579; and the second, the learned Notes of Selden on the first eighteen Songs of the Polyolbion of Drayton, 1612; both productions of great merit, but especially the last, which exhibits a large portion of acumen and research, united to an equal share of discrimination and judgment.

Such are the chief critics on English literature who flourished during the life-time of Shakspeare. That some of them contributed very materially towards the improvement of polite literature, and especially of poetry, by stimulating the genius and guiding the taste of their contemporaries, must be readily granted, and more particularly may these benefits be attributed to the labours of _Webbe_, _Puttenham_, _Sidney_, and _Meres_. How far the manuscripts of _Spenser_ and _Bolton_, at the commencement and termination of our critical era, assisted to enlighten the public mind, cannot now be ascertained; but as the circulation of works in this state is generally very confined, we cannot suppose, even admitting the industry and admiration of their favoured readers to have been strongly excited, that their effect could have been either widely or permanently felt.

It would be a subject of still greater curiosity, could we determine, with any approach towards precision, in what degree Shakspeare was indebted, for his progress in English literature, to the authors whom we have just enumerated, under the kindred branches of _philology_ and _criticism_.

Of his assiduity as a reader of English books, whether original or translated, his works afford the most positive and abundant proofs; and that he was peculiarly attentive to the philology of his native language is to be learnt from the same source. We have already noticed his satirical allusion to Florio and Lilly in the character of Holofernes, and a similar stroke on the innovating pedantry of the times, will be found in his _Much Ado about Nothing_, which was probably directed against another equally bold attempt to alter the whole system of orthography. The experiment was made by Bullokar, of whose Brief Grammar a slight mention has been given, in a book entitled an _Amendment of Orthographie_ for _English Speech_, 1580; in which the author proposes not only an entire change in the established mode of spelling, but a total revolution also in the practice of printing. To level a sarcasm at the head of this daring innovator may have been the aim of the poet, where he represents Benedict complaining of Claudio, that "_he was wont to speak plain, and to the purpose, like an honest man, and a soldier; and now he is turned ORTHOGRAPHER; his words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes_."[472:A]

In a former part of this work we have mentioned some of the books to which our great poet must have had recourse in the progress even of his limited education in the country; and on his settlement in London, we cannot, with any probability, conceive, that a mind so active, comprehensive, and acute, would sit down content with its juvenile acquisitions, and hesitate to inspect those treatises on philology and criticism which had acquired the popular approbation, and were adapted to the years of manhood. Not only, indeed, did he peruse with avidity the _Arte of Rhetoricke_ of Wilson, and the _Scolemaster_ of Ascham, but we are convinced, from a thorough study of his writings, that so extensive was his range of reading, that not a translation from the _Greek_, the _Latin_, the _Italian_, _Spanish_, or _French_ appeared, but what was soon afterwards to be found in the hands of Shakspeare. His dramas, in fact, even without the aid of his indefatigable commentators, assure us, in almost every page, that, if not erudite from the possession of many languages, he was truly and substantially learned in every other sense; in the vast accumulation of materials drawn through the medium of translation, from the most distant and varied sources.

That he had not only read, but availed himself professionally of Wilson's Rhetoric, will be evident, we think, from a passage quoted by Mr. Chalmers, from this critic, in support of a similar opinion. Wilson has mentioned Timon of Athens in such a manner as _might_ lead Shakspeare to select this misanthrope for dramatic exhibition; but the very character and language of _Dogberry_ seem to be anticipated in the following sketch:—"Another good fellow of the countrey, being an officer and mayor of a toune, and desirous to speak like a fine learned man, having just occasion to rebuke a runnegate fellowe, said after this wise, in a greate heate:—Thou _yngraine_ and _vacation_ knave, if I take thee any more within the _circumcision_ of my _dampnation_; I will so _corrupt_ thee, that all other _vacation_ knaves shall take _ilsample_ by thee."[473:A]

We cannot, however, coalesce with Mr. Chalmers, in considering the character of Holofernes as founded on the Scholemaster of Ascham, and that in drawing the colloquial excellence ascribed to the pedagogue by Sir Nathaniel, the poet had in his _minds-eye_ the conversation at Lord Burleigh's table, so strikingly recorded by Ascham in his preface. We have not the smallest doubt but that our author had read, and with much pleasure and profit, the invaluable treatise of that accomplished scholar; but the general folly and pedantry of Holofernes are such, notwithstanding the eulogium of his clerical companion, as to preclude all idea that the character could have been sketched from such a model;—it is, in fact, a broad caricature of some well known pedant of the day, and we must agree with the commentators in fixing upon _Florio_ as the most probable prototype.

It will readily be granted, that, if Shakspeare were the assiduous reader which we have supposed him to be, and no judge, indeed, of his works can doubt it, he must have perused with peculiar interest the critical treatises on poets and poetry which were published during his march to fame. It will be considered, therefore, scarcely as an assumption to conclude, that the works of _Webbe_, _Puttenham_, _Sidney_, and _Meres_ were familiar to his mind; and though he must have written with too much haste, and with too much attention to the gratifications of the _million_, to carry their precepts, and especially the strictures of Sidney, into perfect execution, yet it is very reasonable to conceive that even his early works may have been rendered less imperfect by the perusal of Webbe and Puttenham; and that, as he advanced in his professional career, the improved mechanism of his dramas, and his greater attention to the unities, may have been in some degree derived from the keen invectives of Sir Philip.

That Shakspeare, in return, contributed, more than any other poet, to enrich and modulate his native language, is now freely admitted; but that he was held in similar estimation by his contemporaries, and even at an early period of his poetical progress, may be inferred from what _Markham_ has said of the "poets of his age" in 1595, when Shakspeare had published some of his poems, and had produced his "Romeo," and from what _Meres_, in 1598, more specifically applies to our author; the former observing, in the Dedication of his _Gentleman's Academie_, with reference to the Booke of St. Albans, originally published in 1486, that "our tong being not of such puritie then, _as at this day the Poets of our age have raised it to: of whom, and in whose behalf I wil say thus much, that our Nation may only thinke herselfe beholding for the glory and exact compendiousnes of our longuage_;" and the latter expressly terming our poet, from the superiority of his diction and versification, "_mellifluous and hony-tongued Shakspeare_."[475:A]

Reverting to the subject of National Literature, we proceed to notice the progress which HISTORY, GENERAL, LOCAL AND PERSONAL, may be deemed to have made, during the era to which we are limited.

History appears in every country to have been late in acquiring its best and most legitimate form, and to have been usually preceded by annals or chronicles, which, aspiring to no unity in arrangement, and void of all political or philosophical deduction, were confined to a bare chronological detail of facts. Such was the state of this important branch of literature on the accession of Elizabeth; numerous chroniclers had flourished from Robert of Gloucester to Fabian and Hall, but with little to recommend them, except the minuteness of their register, and the occasional illustration of manners and customs; and more distinguishable for credulity and prolixity than for any other characteristics.

The chronicle of _Holinshed_, however, which appeared in 1577, and a second edition in 1587, merits a higher title. It is more full and complete than any of its predecessors, and less loaded with trifling matter. We are much indebted to Reginald Wolfe, the Queen's printer, for stimulating the historian to the undertaking, who was assisted, in his laborious task, by several able coadjutors, and particularly by the Rev. _William Harrison_, whose _Description of England_, prefixed to the first volume, is the most interesting and valuable document, as a picture of the country, and of the costume, and mode of living of its inhabitants, which the sixteenth century has produced.

The example of Holinshed was followed, towards the close of our period, by _Stowe_ and _Speed_, writers more succinct in their narrative, more correct in their style, and more philosophical in their matter. The "History of Great Britain" by Speed, the second edition of which was printed under the author's care in 1620, is, in every respect, a work of very great merit, whether we consider its authorities, or the mode in which it is written. It is in fact a production which may be read with great pleasure and profit at the present day, and makes a nearer approach, than any former chronicle, to the tone of legitimate history.

In the mean time, the more classical form of this branch of literature was making a rapid progress. Numerous attempts were published, partaking of a mixed character, neither assuming the dignity of history, nor descending to the minuteness of the chronicle; Newton's History of the Saracens[476:A] and Fulbeck's Account of the Roman Factions, previous to the reign of Augustus[476:B], may be mentioned as specimens; but the great historians of this period, who condescended to use their native tongue, were Raleigh, Hayward, Knolles, Bacon, and Daniel, writers who in this province still hold no inferior rank among the classics of their country. The "History of the World," by Sir Walter, exhibits great strength of style, and much solidity of judgment; Hayward's Lives of the three Norman Kings, and of Henry the IV. and Edward the VI., contain many curious facts to which sufficient attention has not yet been paid; his diction is neat and smooth, but he adopts too profusely the classical costume of framing speeches for his principal characters. Knolles's "General History of the Turks" is an elaborate and useful work, and its language is clear, nervous, and often powerfully descriptive. Bacon's Henry the VIIth betrays too much of the apologist for arbitrary power, but it is otherwise of great value; it is written from original, and now lost, materials, with vigour and philosophical acuteness. But these historians are excelled, in purity of style and perspicuity of narration, by Daniel, whose "History of England," closing with the reign of Edward the Third, is a production which reflects great credit on the age in which it was written.

We must not omit to mention, however, two historians, who, by rejecting their vernacular language, and adopting that of ancient Rome, acquired for a time a more extended celebrity in this department. Buchanan and Camden are, or should be, familiar to all lovers of history and topography. The "Rerum Scoticarum Historia" of the first of these historians, and the "Annales Rerum Anglicanarum et Hibernicarum" of the second, are productions in deserved estimation; the former for the classical purity and taste exhibited in its composition, the latter for its accuracy and impartiality.

Of that highly interesting and useful branch of History which is included under the title of Voyages and Travels, the era of which we are treating affords a most abundant harvest. The two great collectors, _Hakluyt_ and _Purchas_, appear within its range, compilers, whose industry and research need fear no rivalry. Hakluyt's first collection was published in a small volume in 1582; was increased to a folio in 1589, and to three volumes of the same size in 1598, containing upwards of two hundred voyages. The still more ample work of Purchas was commenced in 1613, by the publication of the first volume folio, with the title of "Purchas, his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World, and the Religions observed in all Ages and Places discovered, from the Creation unto this present; in four parts." This elaborate undertaking was greatly augmented in subsequent editions, of which the fourth and best was published in 1626, in five volumes folio, the last four being entitled "_Hakluytus Posthumous_, or Purchas, his Pilgrims; containing a history of the world, in sea-voyages, and land-travels, by Englishmen and others." Purchas professes to include, in this immense compilation, the substance of _above twelve hundred authors_; it contains also the maps of Mercator and Hondius, and numerous engravings.

These vast and valuable collections are an honour to the reigns of Elizabeth and James; and, notwithstanding the industry and research of the moderns, have not yet been superseded.

To the gigantic labours of these writers, which include almost every previous book on the subject of voyage or travel, may be added the publications of two or three contemporaries of singular or useful notoriety. In 1611, _Thomas Coryate_ printed the most remarkable of his eccentric productions, under the quaint title of "Crudities hastily gobbled up in five Months Travels, in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia, Helvetia, some Parts of High Germany, and the Netherlands." Lond. large 4to. Coryate was a man of consummate vanity, of some learning, but of no judgment. Inflamed with an inextinguishable desire of travelling, he walked over a great part of Europe and Asia, terminating his life, "in the midst of his Indian travail," about the year 1617. Nothing can be more ridiculous than the style, and often the matter of his book, which is preceded by nearly sixty copies of what Fuller calls _mock-commending verses_. "Prince _Henry_," says the same writer, "allowed him a pension, and kept him for his servant. _Sweet-meats_ and _Coriat_ made up the _last course_ at all _Court-entertainments_. Indeed he was the courtier's _anvil_ to trie their witts upon, and sometimes this _anvil_ returned the _hammers_ as hard knocks as it received, his bluntnesse repaying their abusivenesse."[478:A]

A still greater pedestrian than even Coryate lived, at this time, in the person of _William Lithgow_, who published his "Travels" in 1614. His peregrinations were extended through Europe, Asia, and Africa, and he declares, at the close of his book, that in his three voyages "his painful feet have traced over (besides passages of seas and rivers) thirty-six thousand and odd miles, which draweth near to twice the circumference of the whole earth." His sufferings through the tyranny of the Spanish governor of Malaga, who had tortured, robbed, and imprisoned him, excited so much pity and indignation, that, on his arrival in England, he was conveyed to Theobalds on a feather-bed, being unable to stand, that King James might be an eye-witness of his "martyred anatomy," as he terms the miserable condition to which his body had been reduced. Lithgow's "Travels" are entertaining, and not ill written, but they abound in the marvellous, and too often excite the smile of incredulity.

The "Itinerary, or Ten Yeares Travell through Germany, Italy, England," &c. a folio volume by _Fines Moryson_, is a production of a far different cast. Moryson is a sober-minded and veracious traveller, and that part of his book which relates to the manners and customs of England and Scotland is peculiarly useful and interesting. He was a native of Lincolnshire, and fellow of Peter-house, Cambridge. "He began his Travels," relates Fuller, "May the first, 1591, over a great part of Christendome, and no small share of Turky, even to Jerusalem, and afterwards printed his observations in a _large book_, which, for the truth thereof, is in good reputation, for of so great a traveller, he had nothing of a traveller in him, as to stretch in his reports. At last he was _Secretary_ to _Charles Blunt_, Deputy of Ireland, saw and wrote the conflicts with, and conquest of _Tyrone_, a discourse which deserveth credit, because the writer's _eye_ guides his _pen_, and the privacy of his place acquainted him with many secret passages of importance. He dyed about the year of our Lord 1614."[479:A]

In that department of history which may be termed _local_, including topography and antiquities, the latter half of the sixteenth century had many cultivators. "Persons of greatest eminence in this sort of learning under queen Elizabeth," remarks Nicolson, "were Humphrey Lhuyd, John Twyne, William Harrison, and William Camden."[479:B] Lluyd possessed unrivalled celebrity in his day, for Camden calls him "a learned Briton, who, for knowledge in antiquities, was reputed to carry, after a sort, with him, all the credit and honour." He wrote a variety of tracts, among which is a fragment of a Commentary on Britain; a Description of the Island of Mona; a Description of the Coasts of Scotland; a Chorography of England and Wales; and a Translation of Caradoc's History of Wales, subsequently published by Powel, and again by Wynn. Lluyd practised physic at Denbigh in Wales, and died there about the year 1570. His friend _John Twyne_, the translator of his Commentarioli Britannicæ, under the title of The Breviary of Britain, Lond. 1573, has been extolled also both by Lee and Nicolson for his knowledge of the history and antiquities of his country. He died in 1581, leaving behind him two books of Commentaries on British History[480:A], which reached the press in 1590, and various Collectanea relative to the antiquities of Britain.

We must here add to Bishop Nicolson's enumeration the name of _William Lambarde_, the learned author of _Archaionomia, sive de priscis Anglorum Legibus_, and of the _Perambulation of Kent_. This last production, which was printed in 1570, is the prolific parent of our county histories, works which have in our days very rapidly increased, and which exhibit the estimation in which they are held, by the high price annexed to their publication.

Of _Harrison_'s "Historical Description of the Island of Britain" we have already taken due notice, and it would be superfluous, in this place, to do more than mention the _Britannia_ of _Camden_. Proceeding therefore to the reign of James, we have to increase the catalogue with the names of _Stowe_, _Norden_, _Carew_, and _Burton_. The _Survey of London_ by _Stowe_, is one of the most early, valuable, and interesting of our topographical pieces; and on it has been founded the subsequent descriptions of Hatton, Seymour, Maitland, Noorthouck, Pennant, and Malcolm. _John Norden_ is well known to the lovers of topography by his _Speculum Britanniæ_, which was meant to include the chorography of England, but unfortunately extends no farther than the counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. Norden was the projector of those useful works familiarly termed _Guides_, having written a "Guide for English Travellers," and a "Surveyor's Guide," both works of singular merit. He died about the year 1625. _Richard Carew_, the author of the "Survey of Cornwall," first printed in 1602, and termed, by Fuller, "the pleasant and faithfull description of Cornwall," was educated at Christ-Church, Oxford, where, at the early age of fourteen, though of three years' standing in the University, "he was called out to dispute _extempore_, before the Earls of _Leicester_ and _Warwick_, with the matchless Sir _Philip Sidney_."[481:A] The Cornwall of Carew, though now superseded by the more elaborate history of Dr. Borlase, is a compilation of great merit, and makes a nearer approach than Lambarde's Kent to a perfect model for county topography. Carew died in 1620.